Trinity Christian continues strong run

Rio Rancho's Jared Fuller (33) strips the ball away from Canyon's Clay Halencak on a drive to the basket in their game Friday in the AMA TechTel Kids Inc. Tournament of Champions at First United Bank Center in Canyon.

If this is the first weekend in December, then Lubbock Trinity Christian can easily be found.

The Lions opened the AMA TechTel Kids Inc. Tournament of Champions on Friday at First United Bank Center the way a two-time defending tournament champion would be expected to open it. Trinity Christian began the day by beating Hereford, 89-35, in the first round to advance to Friday’s late semifinal game.

Hereford began and ended the opening quarter strong against the Lions, as Edson Rameriz opened with a 3-pointer and Nate Adams closed it by hitting a jumper. In between, though, Trinity scored 27 unanswered points and took a 29-3 lead, a deficit from which the Herd had no chance to recover.

The Lions made 11 3-pointers to bury Hereford, which never got closer than 20 points after the first quarter.

“It’s just good for us to get in these games and work on a lot of things we need to do better,” first-year Trinity coach Jeremy McFerrin said.

McFerrin succeeded Todd Duncan, who took over as head coach at Lubbock Christian University.

What hasn’t changed, though, is Trinity’s dominance at this tournament. Senior Parker Wentz had a game-high 24 points for the Lions, Dave Miller had 17 points, and Benjamin Wheeler added 10 points off the bench.

That set up a game with tournament co-host Canyon in the semifinals.

“We want to go in and win,” McFerrin said. “We won every tournament we were in last year except for the Caprock Tournament (in Lubbock). We like coming up here and playing the local teams and being the out-of-town spoiler.”

Adams had 16 points and Rameriz 11 points to lead Hereford.

Canyon advanced to the semifinals by beating Rio Rancho, N.M. 59-56. The Eagles scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to go up 54-37 and held on from there, as Will Toliver and junior Wyatt Sippy each scored 13 points.

“We really haven’t had close games where we had to manage things through the end so this was nice,” Canyon coach Guy Crenshaw said. “Our seniors and Sippy really controlled the situation.”